


The Man with the Iron Mask

by Asterous_Poison



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-30
Updated: 2013-04-20
Packaged: 2017-12-06 23:58:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/741705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asterous_Poison/pseuds/Asterous_Poison
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Tell me a story, Thor. Tell me again of the news of Yggdrasil and of the Worlds." Definitely AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue : Tell me a Story

"So ? How do I look like ?"

 

Thor doesn't answer right away. He observes every details of this new mask Loki seems so proud of. And like all those which hid away from his gaze the green eyes of his brother, Thor hates this mask with all his might.

"You look like Loki."

Thor always answers this way. This is a lie. That face covered with painted metal has nothing to do with his brother. But he can't think of answering anything else. He would like to tell him that this mask is even more hideous than the last one, that he doesn't understand why Loki persists in hiding his face behind those heaps of scrap, nails and leather, that he is awful with that on. But he doesn't want to pain Loki. Or make him angry. Thor is able to see him just because Loki accepts it. He doesn't want to lose this privilege just like his Father and his Mother did. Just like all the people of Asgard did.

"You always say that" Loki whispers.

Even his very voice is deformed by that cursed mask. Thor dreams of ripping it from Loki's face and throwing it in the hearth of the fireplace.

"Because there is nothing else to say."

Slowly, the mask nods thoughtfully. Thor knows that Loki knows. But neither of them will change their stance. Loki turns his back on him and heads toward the large window that ornaments the end of his room. He sets down on it a gloved hand and lets his head rest on the pane. A sharp noise is produced when the metal and the glass collide, and that makes a shiver of rage runs along Thor's spine. Thor stays where he is, sited on the end of Loki's bed. The stifled voice of his brother resonates again through the metal.

"Tell me a story, Thor. Tell me again of the news of Yggdrasil and of the Worlds."

And Thor does tell him. Just like every time. He recounts for him the news of the Kingdom, the new gossips, his last adventures with the Warriors Three, his last achievements, what he saw during his travels in the other Worlds. He describes him the landscapes, the trees, the flowers, the weeds, the creatures. He even tries to describe the smells, the flavours, his feelings and those of his comrades. He details him Sif's smile, her grace, her strength. He talks about the words and the new decrees taken by Odin, remembers him the gentleness of Frigga. He tells Loki everything, without leaving out anything, without concealing anything from him.

Loki doesn't turn over but he does listen silently, intently. He is far, so far from here. Thor can't see that, but his eyes are wide open and shed bitter tears while he looks, through Thor's tales, the sceneries of Alfaheim, Midgard or Nidavellir. But when Thor hasn't anything left to recount, Loki is back in his chambers so richly decorated that it hurts his eyes and makes him nauseous. He is no fool. He never was. He is in a cage, a golden cage that he made build himself and from which he never will be able to escape.

And so Loki cries again and he hates. But Thor doesn't see it. That's why Thor loathes that mask, and all its predecessors. Because he can't see when Loki suffers, expect when he tells him so. But Loki never shown his weaknesses willingly, and will never do so. So Thor can't know when his brother is in need of help and he never knows if he brings him enough comfort or in time. That abject mask of iron doesn't allow it. One day, he will break the bolt and cut the leather thongs that hold the mask on the face of his brother and he will free him. He swears it.

But alas, that day has not come yet.


	2. Once Upon a Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once upon a time, there were two brothers.

 

When Thor and Loki were just children, Loki didn't wear any mask and didn't live hidden away in his room. He didn't spare his time between the study of books out of age, the contemplation of an inaccessible outside through his window and the making of monstrous masks.

Truth to be told, Thor and Loki were absolutely alike in their personality. The two of them ran laughing in the long corridors of the Palace, played in the vast gardens of Frigga and made up a thousand and one subterfuges to escape the supervision of their nurses and go to the city. There, they marveled at everything, preyed on the fruits and pastry that merchants gave them because of their belonging of the Royal Family without any qualm and met other children of their age who dragged them in their games.

Then, when the sky turned red with the sunset, they came back to the Palace and pretended that they never went away. And they laughed and laughed again at the crestfallen faces of their nurses and at the weary sights of their Mother. So she pretended to scold them for their bad behavior and sent them to their bed. And when neither of them could find the sleep, she came to them, sat on the edge of the bed, let them nestle in her arms and told them tales from the past. Each time that the name ''Frost Giant" was quoted in her stories, Loki cuddled up a little more against her while Thor swore to slay them all, without any exception, to prevent them to make any more harm. Frigga looked a little troubled at that, but soon she carried up with her tales and only stopped when her two children were sound asleep.

As they grew up, the two brothers distinguished themselves from the other. Loki seemed to follow the path of the scholars while Thor was destined to become a strong and brave warrior. The first discovered himself as a fine sorcerer when the other showed outstanding skills for combat. Each one soon proved to be the bests in their areas and one was the opposite and yet complementary of the other. Loki, calm and collected, cooled down Thor's zeal and kept him from doing foolish things. For his part, Thor, adventurous and cheerful, encouraged Loki to open himself to the others and move from the library. And both of them were utterly satisfied of that.

But that Golden Age ended.

It was a summer day among so many others in Asgard. That morning, Loki complained about feeling unwell and fevered. Thor had to use all his energy to make him get up from his bed, and even more to persuade him to come hunting with their friends.

"Nice try, Loki ! But I recall you promising me a hunt and none of your tricks will force me to give it up ! A promise is a promise !"

During all the day, Loki was lagging behind. He was the center of all Thor's teasing that day. Loki tried to tell his brother that he wasn't faking it, that he really was ill and that if, at least, they were hunting on a flat ground he may go faster.

When Thor scoffed at him, asking him what beast would let itself trap if it could see the hunters, Loki told him that the sun was burning his skin and that it would preferable to wait night for hunting. But Thor's only reply was to stop trying to avoid the hunt. Loki, for all the respect Thor had for him, was famous in all the Nine Realms for his lies.

After a moment, as they are climbing the Mountain of Crimsons Trees Loki begged Thor for a break and Thor sighed.

"Truly brother, you spend too much time with your books ! Here you are, unable to climb the littlest slope without seeing yourself at Death's Door ! That's not worthy of a Prince of Asgard !"

"But… Thor… I'm… really… not… well…" Loki panted, his hands on his knees.

"It's because you always stays secluded in that damn library ! You are getting lazy brother ! Fresh air and exercise, that's what you really need ! Come on, Loki ! Let us go !"

So Loki fell silent and did his best to follow his brother without complaining again.

His best wasn't good enough though. Just when the Sun reached its zenith and Thor was aiming an arrow at a splendid deer, a rough fit a coughing, followed by a pathetic moan, echoed in the mountain, making the deer flee. That time, Thor got angry. He had tolerated Loki's bad will far too long for his own patience. His face red with anger, he turned to his brother, ready to yell at him to stop his little games. But he did not yell at Loki. Because Loki had fallen on the earth. And because Loki's body was convulsing.

"LOKI !"

Fast as thunder, Thor rushed to his brother's side, hoping that it was just another trick and that Loki would get back on his feet, laughing at his panicked face. But Loki did not rise. His hands gripped Thor's arms with the strength of despair and Thor saw Loki's skin crack and melt away. He saw blue crawl on his brother's body and his eyes turn red with blood. He felt the cold burn his own skin and he backed away with surprise, trying to escape those deadly cold hands.

"What…?! What's going on ?! Loki !"

Loki made a strangled noise when rock-like lines appeared on his body. Thor kneeled down again where his brother lied. He tried to hold him still but dared not touch him, afraid of hurting him and, to his shame, to hurt himself with the horrid blue skin. After seconds that lasted like hours, spasms stopped and red eyes deprived of pupils looked weakly for Thor's.

" Thor… I am… cold…" Loki rasped with a shaky voice.

Then his eyes rolled and he stopped moving completely. So, panicked, hands shaking and eyes watering without succeeding on shedding tears, Thor took Loki in his arms, doing his best to ignore the burns from the ice-cold blue skin, and rushed to the Palace.


	3. What Was the Worst

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What was the worst ? Seeing his brother covered with blue skin or not knowing what was happening ?

 

 

He thought that his Mother's tears would be the worst. Worst than the horrified looks of the people when they saw their two Princes, one disheveled, panting, with tears flowing down on his face and shoulders covered with burns, and the other, dead-still and the body covered with a stone-like blue skin. Worst than the panicked voice of his Father when he called upon Eir to treat his son. Worst than when Odin took Loki in his arms, repressing a hiss of pain when the cold ate into his own skin, to take him in his rooms, far from Thor. Worst than the clumsy attempts of his personal maid of cheered him up while treating the burns of his shoulders. Worst than when he waited outside the room where Loki was treated, as he was forbidden to enter and see his brother.

He was wrong.

What was worst was seeing Loki unconscious, bare flesh, lying in a bath of ice, skin still blue, his breathing labored and wheezing, his chest linked up with the Casket of Ancient Winters with a glowing magical bond. What was worst was seeing his Father, of all people, crying while caressing with trembling hand the raven hair of his brother, soaked wet with iced water and sweat. What was worst was hearing Odin begging Loki for forgiveness. What was worst was not knowing what was happening and having no one able to tell him.

What was worst was that he couldn't do anything to help Loki and, for the first time in his entire life, Thor felt himself utterly useless.


	4. You Were not Born Asgardian, my Son

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for Tales. Time for Truths. Time for Despair.

Eir said she had the illness in check, but half of Loki's face is still ravaged by it. It's like his skin had been torn-down before being sewed back on with shoddy material. Blue shoddy material. It is the same with his right hand. His eyes remain green though, even if the right one is now circled by blood-like red. When Loki regains consciousness and sees what has become of his body, when he looks, horrified, at the stony blue skin of the Frost Giant that now crawls on him, he panics and screams until his voice turns raw. It cannot be it cannot be it cannot be. _It. Cannot. Be_.

Except it is.

When his Mother tries to approach and sooth him, he backs away and attempts to flee. But his knees are far too weak to support him and he collapses. He realizes that he cannot breathe, for his lungs seem to be made of fire. It is like he is burning alive. His skin itches and parts of it crack, only to reveal more blue under.

He doesn't understand what's happening to him. And that terrifies him. So he tries to get answers, even if his throat aches and his voice is gone. He looks at Odin with pleading, yet fierce eyes, for he knows that the All-Father surely knows _what by Hel is happening_.

Odin kneels down where his second son has fallen and, with shaky voice and blurred eye, begins his tales.

"You were not born Asgardian, my son." He makes a pause here, searching for his words hesitantly. "You are from Jotunheim."

At that, Thor jumps with a start and gapes in shock. His beloved brother ? One of those monsters ? Preposterous ! And yet, the blue skin, the strange patterns on it, the red eyes, the burning cold… He recognized them from the very start. But he thought, he hoped it was some kind of curse, casted from Jotunheim upon Odin's younger son, to make the one who once brought them on their heels suffer. He cannot believe that Loki is one of them. No, it can't be.

Loki, he, is very still. He waits for Odin to continue.

"You were born when the war was still raging between our two people. I found you, alone, abandoned to the winds' bites and to Death, because too meager to be thought worthy of living. And if you were born Jötunn, at the second my eyes fell on you I felt for you all the love a father can have for a son. So I took you away, far from the cold and from the hunger, and I raised you as one of mine. Only your Mother was let into the confidence. Even your own brother didn't know. Until today."

At that, Loki casts a brief glance at Thor. Seeing his brother's face, he knows that it is the truth. And he feels the anger fledge in his heart.Odin is still speaking though, so Loki brings his eyes back at him, even if part of his focus starts to crumble.

Odin explains him that Loki's magic was already here when he was but an infant. That as soon as Odin laid a hand on him, the blue disappeared to make him look like the one who was picking him up. To make him look like an Aesir. Odin admits, with some shame, he was at first relieved by that, for it was far easier to raise him as his own child under that hide. And so, he never told him, or anyone else, who he really was, fearing that Loki would be rejected and casted aside by people still resentful at the Frost Giants. He only meant to protect his son, nothing more.

So Loki grew up, convinced that he was an Aesir, that he was the second Prince of Asgard and rightful pretender to the Throne, just like Thor was. And his body never turned Jötunn again. But a lie, as big and perfected as it can be, never lasts. Even if he hadn't the look of a Frost Giant, Loki **was** Jötunn and could never change that. That is why Loki never felt the cold, even when storms were ragging outside. That is why the great heats of summer had always been trying for him. That was the cause of his illness.

There was a reason why Jötunns never tried to invade Asgard. Asgard's very own atmosphere was toxic for them, burning their insides until they turned into ashes. Loki's magic protected him as long as it could. But now, it couldn't anymore, for it was affected too by what was like poison for Loki. His body had stood it all, until it couldn't anymore and collapsed.

Asgard was killing the intruder, eating away his flesh from inside. And despite all Odin's powers and knowledge, despite Eir's healing talents and Idunn's golden apples, Loki was dying from it.

As Odin speaks and confesses himself, tears of guilt and pain start to run over his cheeks. He begs Loki to forgive him, because he is the one who forced him to live in a place that his body cannot withstand. Odin swears on his Ancestors' names that he'll find a way, that he'll use all his powers to heal Loki and allow him to be free of the pain, to live as long as he would have if he were truly Aesir. He swears on his remaining eye that he never wanted him to suffer and that he would give all it is in his possession to make things better. It's a pathetic and harrowing spectacle that the sight of Odin, Great Master of the Nine Realms, on his knees before his son and crying, crying, crying…

Loki does not cry. Odin's speech, promises and supplications are lost between the chaos of his thoughts and the pain of his burning lungs. He had heard him, but hadn't listened. All he knows is that he's not Loki of Asgard, son of Odin and Frigga and brother of Thor. He is a monster. One of those that made him shake and cry at night when he was a child. One of those that Thor swore to exterminate. And he will die in agonizing pains, burned alive by the very Realm he called home. Now that Thor knows that he is a Frost Giant, even a runt, will he slay him down, just like he swore to do ?

Loki's eyes fall on his hands. And when he sees that stone-like, alien and hideous skin that, he knows it, crawls on his right arm and devours half of his face, rage and hate fill his heart. Odin is not his Father, neither Frigga is his Mother. They lied to him. All his life is nothing but an odious lie. How can they expect him to believe them now when they say they are sorry ? How can they pretend understand his feelings and share his pains ? _How dare they ?_

Loki finds his strengths again and he gets up, forcing violently Odin far from him. Without saying a word, without even casting his once-parents a glance, he walks through the room with steady steps and clenched fists. He doesn't listen to Odin's desperate calls or Frigga's laments. He ignores the searing pain in his chest and flees (because regardless of how much he tries to deny it, he is fleeing) to his own rooms and double locks himself in.

But even the familiar hangings and beloved books cannot sooth him. It's quite the opposite. The room is full of shiny and precious objects, most of them dedicated to magic, all gifts given by his not-family. Loki rages and hates more. Those objects are only here to remind him who he really is. They all show him how hideous he is now. What he has lost. So, with methodic diligence and cold anger, he scatters each mirror, each surface susceptible to cast his reflection. Then he shatters the embossed furniture and burns down the delicate ornaments. All sources of light are extinguished. He destroys everything he can lay his eyes upon.

While ripping the Odin's banner off the wall, his right hand slips and scrapes itself on a twisted piece of metal. The blood runs red from the wound. Loki looks at it, fascinated and oddly relieved. His blood is not blue. Maybe it's not too late ? Maybe if he tears away the skin, it will heal back to normal ? After all, snakes can shed their skin whenever they want to, can't they ? So Loki digs his nails on his right wrist and pulls. He rips off that hideous skin until his forearm is covered with red. Until the pain of his right hand outmatches the one on his heart. He looks at the damaged he has done to himself and to his room and laughs, before starting to tear apart the banner again.

Finally, when everything is dark and laying waste, only at that moment Loki lets himself drop on the floor and cries.


	5. The Renewed Oath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even if they are not related by blood, Thor and Loki will always be brothers.

Thor stays where he is, numb and dumb, not knowing what to do or what to say, as his Father is confessing himself to Loki. He sees his brother's eyes grow wide and fill with cold harsh anger while Odin, on his knees before him, is crying without ever ceasing to beg Loki's forgiveness. Frigga is sobbing silently, her delicate hands pressed over her heart. She wanted to hug her son but feared a new reject from him, so she doesn'y dare to approach him.

Thor's mind is nothing but sheer Chaos. He feels light-headed and as Odin goes along with his revelations, he thinks that the ground his crumbling under his feet. Loki is not his brother. And Loki is dying. He doesn't know what is the most horrifying. The one with he spend all his childhood, the one with he shared his laughs and cries, his glories and his failures, is a Frost Giant. The one he swore to protect, no matter what, is doomed to Death. Thor remembers now all the times when he and his friends called the Jötunns ''Monsters''. All the times they pretended to slaughter the Frost Giants in their games. All the times when he swore to slay them all.

Thor feels sick.

When Loki leaves the room, confusion and hatred written on his face, Thor is too dazed to react. Loki is far long gone when Thor thinks he might try and hold his brother back. At that time, Thor hates himself. He despises the slowness of his own mind that prevents him to act and talk, his ignorance and his inability to use pretty words like his brother knows how to. Thor curses himself for dragging Loki along in that stupid hunt when his brother told him again and again that he wasn't well. Thor realizes that he is the one who triggered off that. He is the one who shattered the Fate and the happiness of the very three people he loves more than anything in the world.

Now, all he can do is assess the damages. Loki deserted the place. Odin and Frigga have fallen on the ground, sobbing, helpless and old. Him, Thor, the mighty Thor, the greatest hero of the Nine Realms, is frozen on his spot, a lump in his throat and his arms dangling, just like the fool he is. Guards and servants have literally fled. Eir did the same. Neither of them are willing to see their Sovereigns stricken by grief. All fear the storm that, they know it, will come after.

Thor waits for it too. He even hopes for it. He would like Odin to recover and to yell at him, to punish him, to help him atone for his mistakes. It would mean that there's a way for Thor to sort out all the wrong he did. He remembers that peculiar time when he messed up Alfaheim Council (in Thor's defense, he did tell Odin that his presence would do no good). Odin's reprimands had shaken the Palace's walls for what it seemed an eternity and Thor, Alti Thor, had had the scare of his life. But as soon as his punishment carried out, all had reverted back to normal and no one spoke about it ever again. Maybe this time, it will be the same ? Thor hopes it will be the same.

But Odin doesn't yell at him. He doesn't speak at all. He doesn't even look up at Thor.

Odin, the King of Gods, is broken.

Thor runs away. He can't bear to see his Father like this. He doesn't even try to comfort his Parents, to tell them that everything will be fine for them, for Loki. He doesn't know how to lie like his brother does. Thor leaves the room as fast as he can, nearly knocks over a maid who was timidly inquiring if she could bring anything for her Sovereigns, and rushes into the stairs that lead to his rooms. He locks himself up inside them and lets his back fall heavily against the door, breath short and eyes burning with unshed tears. He wants to cry, but the tears do not come.

He stays like that a moment, leaning against the door. It's like he's boiling inside and he doesn"t know what to do to make it stop. His hands are shaking. Little by little, Thor sees red. He needs to strike, to smash something. A vase, a piece of furniture, a wall, anything, just to help him drain off that anger. And the more he tries to hold back his rage, the more it escalates. He doesn't even know to who it is destined. No, that's wrong. Thor knows. Thor is mad at all Asgard. He resents his Parents for hiding the truth from him, his tutors for raising him in the scorn and detestation of the Frost Giants. He holds grudges against Heimdall for never having said anything about it despite knowing (he can see and hear everything and he is supposed to not be aware of the case from the very beginning ? Who Odin is trying to fool ?!), against Eir for not being able to totally heal his brother.

Thor even resents Loki. For being ill. For being born Jötunn.

When he realizes it, Thor grabs the first thing he can get his hand on (a chest) and in a howl he throws it through the room, with all the violence of a hurricane. It crashes against the wall of the back, missing the window only from a few inches. Thor looks at the pieces of golden wood, scattered all over the place, and his wrath exploses, as a sentiment of self-disgust does. He falls on his knees and, still howling, punches with all his might at the ground with his right fist. Again, and again, and again. The flesh doesn't break but he does hear the bones crack. It doesn't stop him.

Oh, how he hates himself. How dare he ? He triggered it all, spoiled everything. How dare he resent all those people who always loved and supported him ? How dare he hold grudges against Loki when his brother has nothing to do with that ? Thor always thought of Frost Giants as aberrations, creatures not even worthy of living. At that very moment, he feels himself far more monstrous than them. He doesn't even dare to imagine about what Loki is thinking of it all. Does his brother think that Thor will butcher him, just like he swore to do with all of his kind ? Does he think that he will be locked up in a cage like some foreign beast to be displayed to the people of the kingdom, like they do in Midgard ?

The images that those thoughts bring to Thor's mind twist his entrails. His fist collides a last time with the stones of the floor as spasms wreck his body. He retches without being able to vomit. Finally, the tears come and Thor greets them with relief. They come to appease the wrath that tears him apart and they take away the image of the Monster.

He hears something falls with a sharp and metallic noise and an object bumps in his left hand. Thor lifts his head and looks at the golden fragment with stupefaction. It takes him some times of intense contemplation to understand what it is. It's a piece of a frame. The frame that borders the portrait of the Royal Family. The nail that supported it didn't resist to violent outburst of the Golden Prince. When it fell, the frame broke and let the canvas slip. It slid on the floor, just into a puddle of wine.

Thor gets off the ground and dashes to pick it up. The canvas is not really damaged. The colors in the upper corner of the left are a little waterlogged, but the rest is intact. Thor contemplates the painted figures with nostalgia. He remembers the day when this painting had been made. He also remembers that Loki and him drove the painter nuts, to the point of making him tear his hair out. Neither Thor or Loki were willing to stay put for hours when there was a million of other things, far more amusing, to do. And if Odin was feared by all his people, he had absolutely no authority at all over his sons. In the end, Thor and Loki finally settled down a little (after Frigga got angry) just to allow the painter to make a quick sketch of them. After that, the painter ran back to finish the painting, in the calm of his workshop.

When they saw the result, Thor and Loki mused over the skills of the painter, for he had been able to give to the painted figures a feeling of peace and serenity, despise the fury of their Mother, the weariness of their Father and their own boredom at that time. The two brothers even tried to apology to the painter for their bad behavior but when he saw them come, the painter locked himself up in his workshop, shouting out that he didn't want to have anything to do with a crazy family like their again, and so the two Princes went back to the Palace. The learnt some time after that the painter left Asgard to settle down in Vanaheim.

Thor smiles when he recalls all that. It is true that this painter was gifted. They all seem so happy on that painting. Odin is embracing Frigga and each has a hand on the shoulder of their sons. Thor and Loki wear a radiant smile and their hands are entwined. And Thor realizes. He and Loki have always been together. Whenever Thor was reprimanded by one of his tutors or Loki had a nightmare, one always ran to find the other. It had been like that for centuries. Was still like that just a few days ago. They are brothers. And nothing will change Thor's mind on that matter. They swore to always protect each other, no matter what. And Thor, as rash as he can be, is a man of his word.

So, before the Portrait of his Family, Thor renews his oath. He leaves his rooms and goes find Loki.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone !
> 
> Thank you for reading that chapter, I hope you liked it ! Another will follow soon (I have 8 chapters written already, I just have to make some corrections ! ^_^)
> 
> Forgive the potential grammatical or spelling mistakes, I am French and my English is not always has good as I would like it to be... TxT If you see one, please let me know so I can correct it ! ^_^


End file.
